The Pit Stop: Your Social Download for the Carpool Line

August 24, 2018

Carly Ilvento

This month’s Pit Stop is teeny tiny compared to previous editions. But so is your attention span because back-to-school traffic, busier routines, and end-of-summer-back-to-reality sobs are taking most of your brainpower and emotional stability – so you’re welcome. Let’s dive into two very important things that just might brighten your day: The social metrics you should actually be analyzing and reporting and Instagram Recommendations.

If you’re wondering what social media metrics to care about now, I’m about to tell you.

You have what seems like 60 million numbers to look at when measuring how a campaign or just one ad is doing on a single social media platform. What if I told you that there are really only a few things that are crucial to consider? School’s back in session. Traffic slows you down. Target already has Halloween decorations on shelves so you’re freaking out. Don’t stress over a long social analytics report. Let me throw some knowledge your way for easy tracking:

Track the amount of content posted and which of that content is driving the most engagement: Look at this data to find out a cadence that works for your brand and the content pieces that perform best throughout that posting schedule.

Track engagements: How many likes did you get on that latest Instagram? No one cares unless it’s for your brand. Track likes, comments, shares or retweets, clicks, and video views (if applicable).

Track fans and followers: An increase in fans/followers usually leads to an increase in engagement. Notice a steady growth in followers? Push it even more. Notice follower numbers are just chilling? Time for a new strategy.

Track competitor growth: I’m not asking you to spy. I’m telling you to take the extra five seconds to also check your biggest competitors’ follower counts and organic engagements. If their engagements and followers are on a quicker rise than those of your brand, maybe you could learn a thing or two from observation. Hint: Keep a list of companies to track and revisit those companies as frequently as you wish. I recommend checking bi-weekly and then you can adjust.

Like food recos but not as fulfilling.

Instead of searching the ‘gram for other accounts you might like (I don’t know who does that anyway), Instagram might just be delivering them to you through your personal feed.

Instagram is testing a new Recommendations feature to bring users content similar to that of accounts they already follow. As an alternative to finding your own way to follow new accounts via hashtags and comment threads, recommendations will appear at the bottom of the feed after you already see all of the seemingly-average posts from already-followed accounts. Instagram then plans on blowing your mind with shiny new content by welcoming users with open arms to their own recommendations feed. Like the recommendations? Take a chance and follow the account. Your follower:following ratio will survive because, “Not all who wander are lost.”

Brands should consider this potential update a golden opportunity to reach (and possibly grow) their optimal audience. Who else would you want to show your posts to than users who follow accounts similar to yours or your competitors? Think of how your content needs to act as a pitch to get users to follow your brand. How do you stand out from the others similar to yours? Why should they follow your brand when they’re already following your competition? Ultimately, how will you get them to tap “Follow?”

What do you think about Instagram Recommendations? Let us know your thoughts at @heyINKco.